On November 23rd, 2012 (38 weeks along) I started having contractions around 10:00 pm that were 3 minutes apart and I couldn't stop shaking. We decided to head up to the U around 1:00 AM. I was admitted at 90% effaced and dilated to a 3. As I contracted, the baby's heart rate dropped from 150 bmp to 100 bmp. The doctor was concerned and didn’t think the baby's heart could handle delivery with much stronger contractions. I asked Tyler to gave me a priesthood blessing which helped me calm down and I felt at peace that everything would be ok. We then headed into the operating room to do a c-section.
William was born November 24, 2012 at 3:42 AM. I didn't get to see him but I heard him cry as they quickly passed him through a window to the NICU. About 45 minutes later I was wheeled next door to a recovery room. We heard the window to the NICU open and they said, "This kid shouldn't be in here. He is seems perfectly healthy and doesn't even need oxygen." They passed him back through the window into our room. He looked just like London when she was born. He weighed 5 lbs 13 oz and 18 in tall. He was a perfect little baby and he got to stay in my room the whole time.
45 min after he was born, you can see the NICU window behind Tyler
London meeting William for the first time.
Nov 27, 2012:
We checked out of the hospital and walked over to Primary's to do an echo. Everything looked great! We scheduled to follow up with Dr Pinto the next week.
During my 22 week ultrasound my doctor said he couldn't get a good look of the heart, he said he wasn't worried just couldn't get a good look because of his position. We were referred to Fraternal Fetal Medicine to get a better look.
Aug 6, 2012: *The update at this doctors appointment was not William's correct diagnoses.
I met with Dr. Feltovich at the AF Fraternal Fetal Medicine. I went by my self because my doctor gave me no reason to believe there was a problem. I brought London with me thinking it wouldn't be a long appointment. Dr. Feltovich couldn’t get a great view either because of the baby’s position. London was getting very impatient so the doctor had the nurse take her out for a little bit. She told me something didn’t look right with our baby's heart and to come back in another 2 hours to see if we could get him to move, she suggested that I bring my husband. I called Tyler at work crying and told him something was wrong with our baby. He got work off, we dropped London off at my parents and went back to the doctors. She was able to get a better look this time and told us our baby had a heart defect called AV canal. We were told that some babies could live somewhat of a normal life but usually this defect was related with down syndrome and some other issues so some only live a couple years. We were devastated, but we knew we would love and cherish any time we would get with our son. Fraternal Fetal Medicine referred us to Primary Children’s Medical Center. It was a terrible 2 week wait between appointments because we had no idea what the future held for our little boy.
End of August 2012:
We went to Primary Children's were they did an hour long echo
ultrasound. The echo took an hour and they took over 100 different pictures of our baby's heart. Afterward the tech took us into a different room to meet with Dr. McCandless
with cardiology. She asked us what we had heard and then she said she had better news. Our baby was diagnosed with L type Transposition of the Great Arteries (TGA). L type meaning that it is "Congenitally Corrected". We were told of all the heart defects, this is the one to have. It is very rare, especially to have the corrected version. She also said she noticed that the Right Ventricle was pretty small but they would keep an eye on it to see if it would grow. The other good news was that because his defect was "corrected" surgery most likely wouldn't be needed and this heart defect was not related with down syndrome. Meaning he could be born and do just fine with nothing being done.
I will try my best to explain this as simple as possible. CCTGA or L type TGA means that the ventricles are switched as well as the main arteries. The anatomy of the heart is not correct but the plumbing or blood flow is (blue blood is pumped from the heart to the lungs, red blood is then brought back to the heart from the lungs and pumped out to the body) - hence why it is called "Corrected". Make sense?
The problem with this defect is that the ventricles that are switched are built very differently. The RV is meant to pump to the lungs (low pressure, easy job) and the LV is meant to pump to the body (high pressure, hard job). The doctors wanted to keep an eye on the RV because it was small and they wondered if it could handle pumping to higher pressure as well as volume of blood.
Here is a picture of a normal heart vs CCTGA:
Also here is a video of a NORMAL HEART:
Sept - Nov 2012:
I continued to meet with my OB, Maternal Fetal Medicine,
and Primary’s.
My next appt with Maternal Fetal Medicine I was pretty upset afterward. I met
with a certain Dr. who spoke very fast, didn’t know anything about the heart
defect and was very insensitive. He started telling me information about the
heart defect that didn’t correlate with what Primary’s had told us. Then after
we walk out to the waiting room he said, "Oh wait, also your baby will most likely be down
syndrome." He wasn’t sensitive about it and told me in front of other patients. I was bothered because I we had just been told by Primary's that it wasn't related. I was so confused and didn't know what to believe. I had to wait another couple weeks before my next appt at Primary's. So I spent more weeks worrying about the unknown. Looking back, I'm not as upset with them not knowing about the defect just bothered I had to worry for so long about something that wasn't true. In their defense, this heart defect was very very rare and I'm sure they don't see it very much. I just wasn't very impressed with the way they handled sharing personal and sensitive information in front of others.
My second visit with Primary’s they did another echo. I met with Dr. Pinto. She said things everything looked good and not much had changed. She cleared up that it was not related with down syndrome as suggested I meet with the Fraternal Fetal Medicine at the UofU. They also recommended that I deliver
up at the U just in case anything went wrong because it is next door to Primary’s.
My third and last visit with Primary's being pregnant everything looked good and we were all set to deliver at the U.
Meet our family: My husband (Tyler) and I (Stacee) both grew up in Utah. We lived a couple blocks away from each other our whole lives and didn't meet till high school. We started dating shortly after his mission to London, England and were married January 8, 2010. Our little girl London was born May 16, 2011 and William was born November 24, 2012. William was born with a very rare Congenital Heart Defect (CHD). He was born with L type TGA, 2 VSD (holes in his ventricles), 1 big ASD (hole in his atrium), a left superior venacava (LSVC), and a small right ventricle.
